Sometimes You Need
by OutCold
Summary: Short oneshot about the development of Abby and Ziva's friendship. Anniversary P present for Tiva4evaxxx - talking for a year today!


**Disclaimer: N'yap.**

**Spoilers: Slightly for Boxed In. **

**A/N: This is for Tiva4evaxxx, aka Em, whom I have known for a whole year as of today. For once I didn't write you a shipfic! I felt friendship was appropriate. I'm so happy!! Anyway, enjoy this when you get back from the gym. Or I hope you enjoy it. Literally, nothing happens........ =P**

**A/N2: Set early S3, when Abby and Ziva are a bit tense with each other. It's short and I'm not sure if I went OOC.... sorry if I did.**

* * *

Ziva hesitated at the door, a rare feeling of nerves fluttering in her stomach. In America there was something that was necessary – something she had not needed in Israel. In America, it seemed, you needed friends. And Ziva was at a loss, making friends had never been genuine for her – the only time she had worked at it was undercover, or when she wanted something. She had never had a friend just for the sake of... having a friend. She knocked on the open door of the lab.

As Abby turned, her grin became a scowl. What was _she _doing here? Wasn't it bad enough that _she _had taken Kate's place in the team? Wasn't it plenty for her that everyone else seemed _just fine _with it? Why would she be here? After hours? No case? _Why? _

"Ziva," she greeted coolly. "Do you need something?"

"No... it was just..." Ziva thought about giving up, and inwardly berated herself. "I was wondering if you would like to join me for a drink, that is all."

This threw Abby. The new team member had responded to her coldness in kind, and she hadn't expected a peace offering or truce. "I'm busy."

Ziva nodded, knowing full well she wasn't. "Another time then."

----

She hadn't planned on being the last person left at Ziva's apartment. But Gibbs, Ducky, Palmer and McGee had all left, and here she was.

"So why didn't you invite Tony?"

Ziva sighed. "He is beginning to get on my nerves. I do not know, I..... I wanted time off, yes?"

"He does take some getting used to," Abby laughed. "But c'mon – what would NCIS be without him?"

Ziva turned from the plates she had began to clear into the sink, smiling to concede the other woman's point. "Very boring, I expect."

"He'll be offended if he finds out about this."

"We will cross that...," she sighed, "I will deal with that if it happens."

"Cross that bridge when we come to it?"

"Exactly."

Abby nodded, swinging herself up. "Want a hand with the dishes?"

----

It was a slow day, and Ziva had snuck down to the lab the instant Gibbs had gone on a coffee run, leaving Tony and McGee to their piles of paperwork.

"Hey!" Abby greeted as she heard the footsteps at the door. Then she turned. "That bad?"

They had been getting on better, though there was still a strained texture to the air around them. They seemed to have an unspoken agreement to _try _to get along.

"That bad. Tony is going mad with the boredom, McGee is dealing with Tony, who has begun to throw things again, and I left when I thought I saw him trying to find his superglue."

Abby laughed. "Poor Tony. Poor McGee. And Gibbs?"

"Gibbs has communicated solely in grunts all day, had two yelling matches with the director, drank six coffees and it is not even lunch yet, slapped Tony every two minutes, everyone is hiding from him and the bullpen has become a war zone."

"Aww," Abby replied, pulling a sympathetic face. "Do you want to help me with ballistics?"

Ziva eyed the lab table full of guns. "Thank you."

-----

"Oh-my-god-Ziva-you-should-have-been-there-last-night-there-was-this-guy-and"

"Abby! Slow down."

The Goth grabbed her desk to stop the manic swirling of her seat. "Right. Woah. Dizzy. What was I saying?"

"I am not su-"

"Right! Last night, I went out, and I went to this club, and-there-was-this-guy-there-"

"Abby," she warned.

"Right."

Gibbs walked in, preventing Abby from ranting on, causing her to instead turn and bounce up, hyperactively flinging herself around him.

"Hey Abs. Ziva, bullpen."

Ziva nodded at him, and was walking away when Abby rushed after her.

"Ziva, you know that drink?"

Her brain flashed through memories, eventually understanding it was a reference to the first night she had tried to extend friendship to Abby. "Yes."

"Tonight good for you?"

She smiled. "Yes."

"I'll pick you up from the bullpen. I need to tell you about this guy."

----

"What are you so happy about?" Tony asked, nosy as ever, when she arrived back upstairs.

"It is none of your business, Tony," she said, but with a smile.

She was still getting used to Western culture, Western ways. She was still getting used to a lot of things. But one she understood now. Sometimes you just need a friend.

* * *

**Reviews aren't important in this case, just the one.**

**Emily? :S**


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